Dagny wrote:Are they asking for a fee?
They haven't been completely explicit in accepting the terms I propose, but no group-level fee has been discussed. My proposal is that most our members who arrive in garb be treated as "volunteers", with no expectation that they make the "suggested donation".
Since the entrance is by suggested donation of $5, there is no legal obligation for anyone (CW or not) to make a donation in order to attend.
Having said all that, I'm picking up hints of stress over budgets' etc. If anyone decided to commit to making a donation, either individually or as a group, they would be grateful.
Since this is the first year of LumaCon and this isn't a professional team of fair promoters, I imagine there's a lot of uncertainty about how many will attend and how much revenue to expect. I further imagine that a large component of the budget is rent of the fairgrounds. If we wanted to be specific about the space we were to use, making some kind of financial commitment would make it easy for us to dictate exactly what space we wanted. If money weren't a significant consideration, I'd prefer to use the larger grassy area between Herzog and the stage, which
is available for rent, for an additional fee. My guess is that we'd rather make do with the area next to and behind Herzog than pony up for the bigger area. It also seems like they'd be very resistant to renting the extra space for us to use exclusively.
I'm open to suggestion on how hard-nosed to be on the point of we-won't-pay-to-get-in, especially from an actual office-holder. My personal opinion is that we are providing a unique, entertaining activity. In other contexts, comparable services are offered by professional performing troupes, who charge for performing those services. Getting our services for free is a
very good bargain; they shouldn't expect us to pay on top of it.
Per my usual procedure, I'll stick with my opinion until a rolled-up newspaper hits me in the face.